PARIS, November 10. /TASS/. The Washington administration believes that the trilateral format of consultations on the Ukrainian settlement should be expanded at the expense of US’ European allies, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

"It's actually our goal at some point to expand this trilateral. So it's not just the US, Ukraine, and Russia, but also that the Europeans be represented at that table directly with these talks. So hopefully, they will be. I think they put out a joint statement today with the European partners that they are there alongside our team, and obviously in the days to come, perhaps we can make some progress on including them in that front," he said at a press conference. "They're not at the table yet, but we think they should be."

The delegations of Russia, the United States and Ukraine have completed the first day of negotiations in Abu Dhabi. They lasted 4.5 hours with a break of about 40 minutes. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said earlier that the presence of Europeans in Abu Dhabi is nothing more than a promotion and an attempt to informally support Kiev.